“A PCL is about as big around as your pinkie,” The unnamed trainer said. “Let’s say a quarter of the PCL was torn, and they went in and cleaned up the fibers, and stuff like that. Well, then it won’t be six months. It will probably be three months.

“Usually, a PCL repair or reconstruction is about the same rehab time as an ACL reconstruction. If they truly reconstructed and fixed it, it’s a six-to-nine month process.”

It’s not all bad news, according to the trainer (who hasn’t treated the 20-year-old). The bright side is that he didn’t damage his ACL, so he’s likely to avoid any long-term effects like a loss of explosiveness.

The waiting game might not be a lot of fun, but at least it sounds like Hertl will be OK when this all blows over. It’s just unclear when, exactly, that will happen.

The New Jersey Devils have been incredibly difficult to beat at home. Lately, the St. Louis Blues have been on a roll just about anywhere.

On Friday night, the Blues were the hotter team, handing the Devils their first home loss in regulation in 2016-17. And it wasn’t particularly close, with St. Louis winning 4-1.

It’s a convenient time to note that the Blues rank among the hottest teams in the NHL. Most recently, they’re 5-1-1 in their last seven games, but they’ve been especially impressive since they flirted with .500 at 7-6-3. Beginning with a 4-1 win against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 15, the Blues are on a 8-2-1 tear.

That’s impressive stuff.

This 4-1 win was quite the showcase for Robby Fabbri and Vladimir Tarasenko, in particular. Tarasenko collected three assists while Fabbri scored two goals on Friday night. His second goal was particularly slick:

The Blues are right in saying that this was a pretty fitting opportunity to drop a “Holy Jumpin.”

Minnesota Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk has been the most difficult goalies to score against this season. Leave it to a high-level player like Leon Draisaitl to make it look this, well, “easy.”

Draisaitl scored his 13th goal of 2016-17 by capping this pretty give-and-go play with Benoit Pouliot. You can see the frustration from Dubnyk at the end of the tally, as if he was saying “How was I supposed to stop that?” (though probably with more colorful language).

Draisaitl came into Friday with five goals and three assists in his last five games, so he’s been almost unstoppable lately.